Smiling is mouth yoga, I once heard someone say. Well, on a recent trip to the South Okanagan, I did lots of it — not just smiling, but other moves like chewing, swirling, smacking lips, and often mouthing “OMG”. (I’m sure there’s some such yoga class not involving goats out there, right?)

I’ll be writing more about my food, wine and spirits trip later, but first, let me tell you of a peak Okanagan experience, one that could very well make Alice Waters go berserk with glee, or jealousy, or both. It’s the Sunday Al Fresco Vineyard Dinners by Joy Road Catering every Sunday through the summer at God’s Mountain Estate (where you can book a B&B room).

With joy and God in the mix, you have expectations. Before I experienced it, Joy Road was merely where chefs Cameron Smith and partner Dana Ewart lived in Penticton. After the dinner, I thought, nope, the joy is in the dazzling farm-style dinner and the food they bring to the table. Ewart (who cooked that evening with an assistant) turned out to be an infectious bundle of joy herself. “Look at these radishes! Aren’t they beautiful?” she said wide-eyed, brandishing a bunch at the table.

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Dinner was at a long table set on a breezy lakeside bluff at an estate as whitewashed as Santorini. God’s Mountain is the backdrop dropping into Skaha Lake, which twinkles as the sun tints everything golden — that’s what is heavenly.

On the table, fresh focaccia studded with olives and country bread looked beautiful in the sun. The cooks brought a plank as long as the table laden with starters for each diner — Joy Road’s prosciutto made from their own heritage breed pigs, salami, pickled and fermented vegetables, bruschetta with crushed peas and one blushing just-picked radish enrobed in butter, flowers and herbs.

(I love al fresco dining. In terroir like the Okanagan, the air and the sun, I tell you, have flavours that perfume the food.)

The main act was slow-roasted Joy Road raised heritage pork, rubbed with fennel. Thank you, pig, so tender and juicy. It came with wild nettle and pecorino polenta, roasted sunchoke, roasted orin apple (a Japanese breed with hints of pineapple and pear).Side dishes included asparagus mimosa, which replaced another veg at the last minute when the chef found wild asparagus on the property and quickly turned it into a dish with Joy Road farm eggs. A green salad was mere hours from being plucked from its earth, judging by how it levitated with freshness.

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For dessert, a rhubarb and frangipane tart, the rhubarb forming Chevron stripes on the rectangular tart. Honey and lavender yogurt soothed the high notes. With each course, connubial bliss with a pairing of local wine.

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Ewart and Smith both cooked at Toqué! and Scaramouche, top-notch restaurants in Montreal and Toronto, before their Okanagan adventure. 2019 is a watershed year for Joy Road — it is, in fact, Ewart and Smith’s last year after starting the company in 2005 and cooking the dinners at God’s Mountain since 2007. They are taking time off to travel, and cycling from Croatia to Turkey is one possibility.

They have sold the business to Cocktails and Canapes Catering (Brett Turner and Olivia Fobert), which has made a name for itself in Vancouver. The couple will stay on until the end of the season working with the new owners.

Tickets (advance tickets sold online) are $120 per person, and includes wine. The website lists winemaker dinners and other ticketed events they will be catering this year. For something more casual, catch them at the Penticton Farmers’ Market every Saturday and beeline it to their cult-status galettes. They sell out quickly.

The couple aren’t sure how they will re-incarnate, but, says Ewart, “we’re always going to be cooking.”

And by the way, next week I write about another peak Okanagan dinner experience. Stay tuned.